Sheila Schumacher

Klaus Knoll

Semester One Research

November 11, 2005

Shodo: Japanese Calligraphy

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Humans are communicative beings who use pictures and sounds to meet that need.

When we write a letter to a friend we are communicating information, not only the

content of the words, but our own individual handwriting imparts a personality; a

certain degree of information about who we are, how we are feeling, and our thoughts

about the stated subject. The content of the words, or symbols, always have an

emotional or spiritual context. Historically, writing has been a vital communication tool

of governments and religions. The requirements for documenting commerce and

spiritual truths precipitated the need for writing systems and individuals who developed

mastery in those methods. In Japan many of these masters lived within the Buddhist

monastic communities and served the government with their writing skills. . Their

commitment to a life of spiritual discipline and service is the very embodied

representation of shodo, where the actions of the brush are said not to be able to exist

without the energy of the spirit. This essay seeks to show the power of this spirit-mind

link through an historic and aesthetic review of the art form.

Shodo is the “way of the brush”. This calligraphy is more than a writing method; it

is an art form. The style is filled with the aesthetics inherent in Japanese culture and is

viewed as an equal with other traditional Japanese arts. Inextricably linked in the

practice of Japanese arts are the spiritual energy of creativity, or ki, and the physical act

of creation. The Japanese aesthetic assumes the presence of this spiritual energy in all of

its classical art forms, including poetry, calligraphy, flower arranging and the art of the

tea. In Japan: Strategy of the Unseen, Michael Random defines ki as:

Energy. The manifestation of the vital inner energy that is to be found in

every man, and which is none other than the original creative energy of

the earth and the Universe...Ki is thus the fundamental energy of being,

beyond physical, chemical or natural phenomena. Attention, mental

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force is itself ki, and therefore it can be directed into every part of the

body or turned outwards towards the external world. 1

By this definition it is impossible to separate the artist from the stroke. In great

examples of shodo, the viewer will be able to detect the character of the individual as

well as the beauty, grace, rhythm and depth of the brush strokes themselves.

WRITING SYSTEMS

Ancient civilizations held beliefs that their gods kept the art of written

communication, or sacred signs, with them, until they chose to gift it to the humans. In

Sumeria, Enki, the god of the watery abyss and wisdom, entrusted writing to Nisaba, the

goddess of grain, who watched over the reeds from which the scribes cut their calami,

or pens. The Egyptians received their hieroglyphs from the divine scribe, the god Toth,

and in China, the Yellow God and legendary emperor Huangdi, entrusted the quest for

writing to his emissary Cang Jie. Huangdi studied the tracks left by animals and birds in

the sand, and used them to as the basis for images used in Chinese writing. When Cang

Jie created the system of Chinese ideograms, it is said that he penetrated secrets

engraved at the very heart of the world. 2

Most ancient peoples believed that writing was divine, inherently spiritual and

possessed the powers to teach the highest mysteries. Therefore the skills of writing, or

calligraphy, were highly respected. Priests and monks have often been the teachers of

this art, as they transcribed sacred texts for use by their communities.

1 Michel Random, Japan: Strategy of the Unseen (Northamptonshire, Engand; Crucible, 1987), pp. 192-3.

2 Louise Boudonnat and Harumi Kushizaki, Traces of the Brush: The Art of Japanese Calligraphy (France;

Editions du Seuil, 2003), p. 8.

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The Sumerians are credited with creating the earliest known form of writing, a series

of pictographs, in the late 4th millennium bce. (bce before common era). As early as

35,000 bce, graphic shapes were carved into bones, tortoise shells, and clay tablets.

Cave paintings began appearing around 30,000 bce, and the well-known Lascaux Cave

paintings are dated between 15,000 and 13,000 bce.3 Communicating through pictures

is the foundation of all writing systems, and through history they have evolved into

different systems that met the needs of the society at any given time and place. These

systems are categorized into three primary groups: alphabets, where a standard set of

letters or written symbols, each representing a single phoneme (sound) of a spoken

language; syllabaries where symbols represent syllables (groups of sounds together); and

complex scripts or logographic scripts where symbols represent both sound and

meaning. Pictographic and logographic systems came first, and alphabets as we know

them today are the most simplified versions of the original pictograms.

UNIVERSAL AESTHETICS IN JAPANESE ART

Art in the Japanese culture is layered with concepts of technical skill, spiritual

discipline, artistic direction and sometimes limitations on form, but they all share

particular aesthetic values. Defining the following terms and concepts will help in

understanding these aesthetics.

Gei-doh is the collective theory of classical Japanese arts, defined as the aesthetic

Way. The word Way being used as a noun describing more than an occasional

interaction with the art, but a deliberate and defined life practice: the Way of calligraphy

or the Way of Tea, for example. These titles show a respect for the art forms and more

pointedly, the disciplined long-term practice needed to master them. 3 Britannica.com Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. November 1, 2005.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9047247?query=Lascaux%20cave%20paintings&ct= .

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Wabi means poverty and Sabi means solitude or lonesomeness. These are not

diminishing thoughts of quality, but an acceptance of the natural. Wabi-sabi includes

accepting the flawlessness of natural imperfection and the belief that beauty can be

coaxed out of ugliness.4 In order to accept shodo as a beautiful creation one must accept

the inconsistencies of the brushstrokes, and that no two brushstrokes are ever alike. The

beauty of imperfect balance and combinations of shape, size and direction in nature are

easily seen in shodo.

Kokoro means mind. Kotoba means word. Omoi is the thought or thinking, including

both images and ideas. Jo is the feeling or emotion. When writing poetry the interaction

between these is as follows.

Kokoro (mind) is a living and genuine subjectivity, a state of subjective equilibrium.

With a spiritual discipline of contemplation, the kokoro becomes full and ripe to spur the

act of creation. It is an essence more than a definable thing, a creative consciousness

waiting for activation. Once an idea, image, or emotion occurs, the kokoro, this essence,

is transformed into omoi or jo (thought or emotion).

Similarly, once the jo is externally indicated, it is no longer jo, but omoi. If

externalized in written form such as waka poetry, becoming kotoba (word), this creative

expression is known as yo-jo. When defined as yo-jo, it is considered the highest

aesthetic of the waka poet and the driving force towards the creation of the work.5

So the mind becomes full, a thought or emotion arises, finding physical form in

word, which bring the fullness of the mind out to the viewer, or reader.

Yugen is another foundational aesthetic in Japanese art. Only by removing the

limitations of our human existence can we even begin to understand the concept of 4 H. E. Davey, Brush Meditation (Stone Bridge, California, 1999), p. 29.

5 Toshihiko and Toyo Izutsu, The Theory of Beauty in the Classical Aesthetics of Japan (Martinus Nijhoff, TheHague, 1981) p. 16.

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yugen. Literally translated the components of the word means faint, shadowy-ness,

dimness, darkness or blackness. These are not definitions regarding light, but of the

need to concentrate fully; to look intently into the darkness, beyond your physical ability

and into the spiritual, the unknown, as yet invisible. Closer to metaphysical than

physical, we must by faith trust that it is, and open ourselves to it during the creative

process. Yugen is not only an aesthetic idea or ideal but also an indication of a reality

actually experienced by poets and artists as they focus their consciousness on that

particular aspect of the phenomenal world.6

So how are these aesthetics realized and recognized in the creative works? Contrary

to the practical act of seeking to make a piece of art, looking primarily for the outcome,

Japanese arts are more about the preparation and process. The Japanese artisan

develops a balance of spiritual energy and technical expertise, and then pulls the two

together in the creation process. The subject (artist) and the object (ultimate creative

work) are in constant flow presenting a never ending back and forth influence on each

other. The object is waiting for the time to appear, and the subject is preparing himself

into a state of constant readiness to create. It is this never-ending articulation of creative

energy demanding the ego of the human being be put aside. If the ego tries to control,

define and force the creation of any artistic endeavor, the energy flow is stunted, leaving

the creation flat and lifeless. In order to be in this state of constant readiness, an

individual must spend time in contemplation, meditation, and quietness. This deliberate

contemplative thinking allows links to form between images and ideas. These links are

then ready to respond during the activation of the creative process.

In shodo as in waka, there is but one opportunity for any particular creation. The

words for a waka must come all at once. The writer may not pour over a dictionary and

6 Toshihiko and Toyo Izutsu, The Theory of Beauty in the Classical Aesthetics of Japan (Martinus Nijhoff, TheHague, 1981) p. 27.

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thesaurus, counting syllables to get to the required thirty-one. The thought forms and

then is written. In shodo, the brushstrokes cannot be reworked with white and black ink.

The energy forms and the stroke is made. Understanding that the Japanese aesthetic

values the preparation, creation, and spiritual dimension of the artist and the art allows

us to view these creations on many levels. Each evaluation is enriched by the next but

cannot be separated from the whole of the mind and the spirit.

SHODO: THE WAY OF THE BRUSH

In the sixth century Chinese characters came to Japan following a wave of

immigration from China. In 513, the scholar Danyoji, master of the Five Teachings,

came to present his knowledge to the Japanese court. These included the history of

China, ancient poetry compiled by Confucius, the philosophical lessons of the Master,

Taoism and the art of governance. In 553 he returned and brought medicine, the

Chinese calendar, the art of divination and the first calligraphic codes and models. Japan

had no writing system of their own and so adopted this Chinese calligraphy as the

official script for government, political and religious documents. Buddhist scholars in

Japan mastered the style of Chinese calligraphy as they copied ancient scripts for the

Japanese people. The visual presence of Chinese characters and the art of calligraphy

began to spread. However, the two spoken languages are very different. Japanese is

polysyllabic while Chinese is monosyllabic, thus preventing the Chinese characters to

fully represent the whole of Japanese culture through written form. Slowly, this

changed.

In the eighth century there is documentation that Chinese characters were being

pronounced consistently in the Japanese language. Sino-Japanese, called onyomi,

preserved the original Chinese pronunciation and reading in terms of meaning, and

kunyomi pronounced a character in Japanese. Because of this mixture of Chinese

characters and the Japanese language, kanbun denotes texts written in ideograms but

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read in Japanese, and wabun refers to texts written and spoken in Japanese.

In the ninth century this phonetic use of ideograms was split into two different

categories of syllabic signs; katakana and hiragana, both referred to under the overall

term of kana. Katakana is a group of forty-six characters used primarily for scientific

vocabulary and the technical transcriptions. Hiragana contains many hundreds of

characters, is a fluid and wavy script, and was used extensively by the women of the

court for their personal journals, letters, and poetry. This script has become visually

synonymous with Japanese poetry, for its ability to capture feeling and emotion. Kanji,

or the “letter of the Han dynasty,” continued to preserve the forms of Chinese

ideograms while hiragana flourished as the form for literature and art. The two types of

writing coexisted in Japan until the twelfth century when a system was formalized that

combined ideograms and syllabaries, and is thought of as the point of origin of

contemporary Japanese. The opportunity to use both allows the Japanese spoken words

to be recorded more literally in translation of the content, emotion, and intellectual

purpose.

Japanese writing has always been connected to the art of calligraphy because they

are the same images, but the heart and skill of the execution between daily

correspondence and art are dramatically different. The written characters and the

method for their transcription arrived together from China to Japan, and as the

ideograms evolved so did the stroke with which they were made.

By the fourth century bce, many of the different ideograms had been standardized

into a form known as the greater seal script, or daiten. This structured and sometimes

formal style was used for political, religious and business documents. More

standardization and consolidation occurred thru the Ch’in dynasty (221 – 206 bce) with

the development of the lesser seal script called shoten, which is still in common use for

seals today. These two styles are sometimes referred together as seal script, or tensho.

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As more individuals wrote, the development of additional styles was inevitable.

Reisho, or scribe’s script, shows the first movement towards added fluidity of brush

moves and a simplification of characters. These stylistic developments continued with a

standard script known as kaisho, a semicursive script called gyosho, and clearly the most

stylized of all known as grass script or sosho. The grass style is very personal, highly

stylistic, and can often be read only by the calligrapher themselves.

Here are three kanji written in the five major Japanese script styles.7

Tortoise shells dated from the Shang dynasty in the fourteenth century bce have

been found engraved with Chinese ideograms. The tortoise holds an eminent position in

Asia as the symbolic representation of the world, with its curved back representing an

image of the heavenly vault, and the flat abdomen an image of the earth’s horizon. The

7 Tanchu Terayama, Zen Brushwork (Kodansha, Tokyo, 2003), p. 12.

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natural median line that symmetrically separates the belly is thought to have dictated

the vertical nature of the writing. Even today, texts begin at the top right and move

down in vertical columns from right to left across the page. Individual characters can be

made of multiple strokes, and all strokes are made in a consistent order from left to right

and from top to bottom. Columns of text hold an implied vertical axis that gives

structure to the overall piece. Each character is placed centered on this invisible vertical

line and in a balanced position under the character above.

This Kana calligraphy shows

the formal form used during the

Heian period. It is attributed to

Fujiwara no Yukinari, and reads

“Contemplating the wild cherry trees.Spring mist.

Why does it hide the cherryblossoms?

Can it at least let me

Admire the charm

Of the falling petals!”

THE FOUR TREASURES OF CALLIGRAPHY

Four materials are necessary for the practice of shodo: the brush, the ink, the

inkstone, and the paper: hitsu – boku – ken – shi. Known as The Four Treasures, these

elements each serve a specific part in the creation of Japanese calligraphic art.

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THE BRUSH

The brush of a calligrapher has a “body” described in

human term, with loins, a belly, shoulders and throat.

Brushes have personality and a master brush maker will craft

a brush to match specifically with the needs and attitudes of

the artist. The two will learn from each other over the life of

the brush. This “life” of a brush does not go on forever.

The brush is the treasure that is most alive but also the most

short-lived. Once the utility has passed, it is to be buried in a

Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. Since brushes have their

own life and soul, the calligrapher must honor its spirit in this

manner.

Animal hairs of all kinds are used, giving different

qualities to different brushes. Rabbit hairs are most common, but large brushes use

sheep’s hair. Hard brushes can be made from tanuki, deer, marten, weasel or horse,

even bamboo Soft brushes use rabbit, cat, sheep or monkey hairs. Other more

surprising ingredients have been tiger, wolf, rat whiskers, pheasant down, and even

human hair. (The Tanuki is a legendary animal from the Canidae family that has the

power of metamorphosis.) Mixed-hair brushes can be made, but only by a skilled

craftsman and used only by a skilled artisan.

THE INK

Known as sumi, the word for ink includes the meanings of dyeing, infiltration, and

lampblack. Ink is the treasure that sacrifices itself slowly at the calligrapher’s hand, as it is

rubbed against the ink stone. With clear water and a gentle circular motion, the slight

pressure against the stone produces the ink. The artist’s hand allows the release of the

ink and readies it for the brush and paper. Creating the ink with the stick and stone

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takes time, and is seen as a meditative process, a time for clearing the mind and

readying oneself for the art.

The old imperial capital of Nara became the historical center of ink making in Japan

after a Korean monk and painter, Doncho, brought the secret of ink making during his

travels there in 610. Ink sticks were made using lampblack from burnt wood, with pine

as the chosen favorite for its fine bluish-black color. Modern sticks are made from a

variety of products including sesame, colza and soy oils. Lesser quality inks are created

with petroleum products. Modern calligraphers may use premixed ink in squirt bottles,

choosing to trade some meditative preparation for convenience.

THE INKSTONE: SUZURI

The word suzuri means “to rub the ink.” Of the four treasures, the inkstone is

thought to be eternal. The brush will die, the ink will be sacrificed, the paper used, but

the stone stands as the symbol of longevity and eternity.

While the brush is described as the physical human body, the parts of the suzuri are

described as where the earth meets the sea, with areas defined as the hill, ebb shore,

and sea. Intimately connected to water, the stone is rough enough to pull the ink from

the stick but smooth enough to not absorb the water.

Inkstones range from a simple rectangular shape, to more organic with some

carving, and to the highly

elaborate and decorated.

Inexpensive ones are made

from pulver ized and

compressed stone. The tankei suzuri, made only from dark purple river stones found in

the Guangdong Province in China, is consider to be the best inkstone available. It has a

fine, uniform grain and a smooth, sultry color.

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The place of these four treasures in the lives of Japanese people is not to be

underestimated. Calligraphy is learned as a child as this passage illustrates:

“Every year, on July 7, “washing the inkstone,” or suzuri aria, becomes a national

ritual. This is when the kami of scholars is celebrated, as embodied by the person of the

Heian poet and minister Sugawara no Michizane. On this day, schoolchildren

meticulously clean their desks and inkstones. In the morning, they gather the dew from

the leaves of sweet potatoes and dilute their ink in this pure water before calligraphing

their wishes and asking the kami to grant them the art of fine writing.” 8

THE PAPER

The method and procedure for making paper came to Japan by the Korean monk

Doncho in 610. Japanese artisans quickly absorbed and improved this technique,

moving it to an art form and part of the national culture. As the fourth calligraphy

treasure, paper is thought to be the feminine receptacle that houses the writing. Nature

is its soul, because paper is produced directly from elements of the earth.

Papers vary in texture, color, purpose and quality based on the materials from

which it is made. In the seventh century, Japanese papermakers used Chinese plants

mixed with local Japanese specimens of bamboo, mulberry bark, straw, hemp and rice.

The mulberry tree was widely cultivated and became the primary fiber of paper from the

late seventh century into our modern time. During the Nara century, Ganpi, hemp and

mulberry fibers were dyed and mixed with powdered filaments, small squares of gold,

silver and mica to create beautiful sheets for the master painters and calligraphers.

As with each of the treasures, paper is not a passive part in this art. Sakaki Bakuzan,

a contemporary calligraphy master said, “…if the quality of the ink is poor and cannot

8 Louise Boudonnat and Harumi Kushizaki, Traces of the Brush: The Art of Japanese Calligraphy (France;Editions du Seuil, 2003), p. 185.

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match the paper, then I think the latter has the power to refuse it by strikingly revealing

its poor quality.” 9

SACRED ROOTS

While the kanji and kana are the script of everyday writing, shodo as an art form of

calligraphy cannot be separated from its sacred roots or the fact that the Japanese

government facilitated its growth across the country. Buddhism was introduced to Japan

in 538 and soon became the state religion. Literacy rates in Japan began to rise,

Buddhist monasteries were placed in every province across the country and there was an

overwhelming need for copies of the Daizokyo (the compendium of all Buddhist sutras).

To meet this demand the government sponsored multiple sutra-copying projects.

Approximately 20 such projects, each employing about ten thousand workers including

scribes, proofreaders, mounters, inspectors and others lasting for a period of about 12

months.10 After these initial efforts, an official Buddhist scriptorium was established

within the imperial palace. This assembly-line type of production was done by monks

with varying degrees of technical and spiritual proficiency, not all by Zen masters. The

fairly quick and mass distribution of hand inscribed scrolls laid the foundational

connection between Zen and the art of shodo.

ZEN CALLIGRAPHY

Bokuseki means “ink trace,” and is the term defining the calligraphy style of the Zen

Buddhist monks. More visually powerful than the calligraphy of the Heian period

preceding it, Zen works were created as an instrument of meditation and concentration.

Along with the stronger brushstrokes, another visual transition was the move from

lengthy text presented on horizontal scrolls to an almost emphatically vertical

9 Louise Boudonnat and Harumi Kushizaki, Traces of the Brush: The Art of Japanese Calligraphy (France;Editions du Seuil, 2003), p. 197.10 Miyeko Murase, The Written Image (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002), p. 13.

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presentation of shorter, more reflective statements. The vertical nature is thought to be

a representation of the line between heaven and earth.

For the Zen monk, a practice of calligraphy is a path to inner knowledge, similar to

their daily meditations called koan. An intense practice develops the mastery of the

brush in a way that makes the strokes look as if they were dashed off without much

thought. In actuality, without thought, is exactly what the Zen calligrapher wants to

accomplish. Putting his entire self aside and allowing the ki to flow out thru the brush

and onto the paper, is the ultimate success of stroke. The path to inner knowledge

meant that their spirits would challenge their academic training of traditional calligraphy

to move to a higher aesthetic level. Fukushima Roshi explained, “All Zen Masters can do

calligraphy with a Zen mind, but as an art, sometimes it is not skillful because they did

not do the fundamental practice of calligraphy. Zen Masters should do fundamental

practice of calligraphy before training as a monk.” 11 Traditional skill training is therefore

essential in the combination of brush and spirit. Upon Enlightenment, Zen Masters have

exhibited some highly personal characteristics in their calligraphy. Here are some

examples.

11 Audrey Yoshiko Seo. Fukushima Keido: Reflections in Ink. Ed. Jason M. Wirth. Clear Light, Santa Fe, 2003.p.12.

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Ikkyu Sojun (1394 – 1481) challenged the

orthodoxy of the day and accused the temples of

corruption. His calligraphy was violent and raw when

compared to his contemporaries, using hard bamboo

brushes and showing his rebellious nature by

deliberately writing some characters backwards. The

pieces at right are Do No Evil, Do

Good, primary Buddhist teachings

presented in prosodic form.

Hakuin Ekaku (1685 – 1768) used very thick strokes and his

character placement on the page followed no traditional rules. At

left, Method for Keeping at the Center of the Movement of Things,

shows his extremely bold approach.

Jiun (1718 – 1804) was not

a disciple of Zen but of a

Buddhist sect known as Shingon.

His calligraphy was hard on the paper, sometimes

leaving scrapes or marks where his brush pulled the

paper. Large, fat, ideograms and Sanskrit characters

were pushed to the abstract and created very avant

guarde typography. At right are two of an eight piece

set, The Eight Founders of Esoteric Buddhism.

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Sengai Gibon (1750 – 1837) mixed painting and calligraphy, and extended into the

abstractionism began by Jiun. His piece, Signs of the Universe, moves away from

traditional characters and introduce the three basic forms of life – circle, triangle, square.

His willful introduction of primordial symbols alongside classic text shows again the

desire for the individuals’ own energy and direction in this meditative but powerful art.

The Zen monks of the sixteenth thru eighteenth centuries continued their daily

shodo practice, and without primary intention, preserved it as an art form. Their faithful

transcriptions of the Buddhist sutras retained the kanji shapes. Their faithful

commitment to the spirit developed their ki. Using calligraphy as a tool, their daily

meditation and practice is said to bring about lasting spiritual transformation. This daily

process is the objective in shodo for the monks and for any individual artisan. Clearly one

does not decide today and become a master calligrapher tomorrow. Likewise one

cannot develop only half of the equation. Skill and spirit will always be connected in the

creation of aesthetically beautiful and meaningful works of shodo.